Vicon Standard 2020

VICON STANDARD 2020
But with IMU we can then better transfer the
results from the more detailed lab capture
sessions to the field.”
Furthermore, with the forthcoming addition
of IMU to their setup, Christian and his
team can work more collaboratively with
other Red Bull personnel. “We can train the
coaches to understand the data they record
and immediately give feedback to the
athletes,” he says.
The input of athletes and their coaches
is critical, as they understand their
performance with a depth that can only
come from long periods in the field.
“I can show them the technology, show
what we usually do,” says Christian.
“But in the communication with the athletes
and coaches we establish whether that’s a
fit or whether we need something different.
For instance, for snowboarders we look
a lot at rotation and how that works in
comparison with rotating the pelvis and
leaving the ground. It’s fascinating - in
every discussion with a coach or athlete
we learn so much.”
GETTING SPECIFIC
It comes back to providing highly tailored solutions, Christian says. “In sports science there
are all these principles about what you should do to, for example, become a good sprinter.
But we’ve been measuring five different sprinters and they all have completely different
movement patterns.
“So every athlete gets his or her unique suggestions and ideas. That’s the fun part, but also
the challenging part, combining that with known values. We calculate the mean angle for,
for example, the knee [across all athletes performing a given movement]. That’s important,
because we know where the athlete is in terms of this norm.” But, Christian goes on, that
doesn’t mean that an athlete outside that average is doing something wrong - the mean just
provides a reference point from which to interpret the data.
Christian can give example after example of athletes his team has helped in this way.
One is a soccer player who had issues with knee stability. Christian’s team was able to
determine that the player had an imbalance between the muscle chains across his hip in the
front and back. This created a large angular momentum causing the thigh to move forward
and introduce the instability to the knee.
Another example is a distance runner who
had an achilles problem - she had too much
rotational momentum which she ended up
compensating for with her achilles, though it
could just as easily have been her knee.
LIFE SCIENCES
In both cases the team was able to link
the symptoms in one part of the body to a
problem in another - insights that wouldn’t
have been possible without reliable,
high fidelity data.
WE CAN TRAIN THE
COACHES TO UNDERSTAND
THE DATA THEY RECORD
AND IMMEDIATELY GIVE
FEEDBACK TO THE ATHLETES.”
Building on that foundation, Christian is
excited about where Red Bull can take these
tools and insights in the future. He talks
about the possibilities of full 3D modelling
out in the wild, and of using inertial sensors
to capture the movement of athletes half
the world away.
CHRISTIAN
MAURER-GRUBINGER
Athlete Performance Centre
network’s headquarters
Austria
Not satisfied with conquering the breadth
of sporting achievement, Red Bull is intent
on delving into the depths of human
performance.
Photography courtesy of: Red Bull Diagnostics and Training Centre
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